The University of Colorado will not allow students to bring guns into the Boulder campus's dorms this fall, though residents who have concealed-carry permits will be allowed to keep weapons in a limited number of family housing units, school officials announced Thursday.

CU also is banning permit holders from bringing guns to ticketed events, which includes everything from football games at Folsom Field to concerts at Macky Auditorium, said Bronson Hilliard, spokesman for the Boulder campus.

In March, the state Supreme Court ruled that CU cannot ban concealed-weapon permit holders from bringing their guns to the university's campuses, prompting officials at the Boulder campus this summer to review contractual agreements for students who live in the dorms and family housing units.

The new rules announced Thursday are troubling to James Manley, the attorney from the Mountain States Legal Foundation, who represented the student gun-rights group that brought the original lawsuit against CU's gun ban.

"We're going to take a hard look at the language, and if it conflicts with the concealed-carry act ruling of the Supreme Court, all options are open to us, including continuing the litigation that CU lost in March," Manley said.

State law allows for those who are 21 or older, and who possess a concealed-carry permit, to carry a gun on campus.

Deb Coffin, vice chancellor for student affairs, met with student veterans, undergraduates, graduates and the CU Parents Association before developing the new contract agreement for university housing.

There are a dozen university-owned, standalone family housing cottages that will allow for students with concealed weapons permits to keep guns in their residences. Additionally, there are a limited number of units in Athens North, a family housing unit, that will allow for students with permits to bring their guns.

Students in these family housing units must sign contracts stating that they will lock their guns in safes when they leave their cottages or apartments, Coffin said.

Jeremy Difilippo, a geography major at CU who shares an Athens North apartment with his brother, said he doesn't believe guns should be allowed in his building.

"I don't think this is a threatening environment," he said Thursday, outside of his apartment at 19th and Athens streets. "It doesn't seem like a place people need to bring guns."

Other gun-owning students with permits can lock their weapons in lockers at the CU Police Department and have access to them at all times.

Ryan Huff, a spokesman at the CU Police Department, said students on average store about 20 to 30 guns in the department's lockers during the school year.

The dormitory gun ban also applies to students living in the university-owned Bear Creek Apartments, near Baseline Road and 30th Street.

Coffin said that in exploring the new rules for guns in the residence halls, her group consulted with military bases, including Peterson Air Force Base, Buckley Air Force Base and Fort Carson Army Base, and found that the policy at those facilities is to not allow guns in the barracks, but allow them in family housing units.

CU also explored polices at peer universities, and found it's common not to allow guns into undergraduate dorms, while there are mixed rules for graduate housing.

At Colorado State University, which has allowed for concealed-weapon permit holders to bring guns on its campuses, guns are not allowed in the dorms.

Less than 1% have permits

CU estimates that less than 1 percent of CU faculty members, staff members and students have concealed-carry permits. Only 4 percent of students living on campus are 21 or older. In Bear Creek, about 28 percent of the students are 21 or older.

Jonathan Snider, a high school student from Dallas, Texas, toured the Boulder campus on Thursday afternoon with his mother, as CU is among the schools he is considering. He said he believes if students living in the dorms go through the proper training, they should be allowed to keep their weapons in their rooms.

Melinda Forbes, his mother, disagreed.

"I'm pleased CU made the decision to ban guns in the dorms," she said. "Everybody should be able to feel secure in their own home."

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